Nathan Roy

As we have seen, Gag is responsible for correct targeting of viral assembly to discreet sites on the plasma membrane, and viral capsid structure assembly into organized virus particles. However, Gag is also responsible for packaging of the viral RNA into budding virions, and this function in executed by the NC domain. The 5' LTR of HIV-1 genomic RNA contains a recognition element called the psi element. All retroviruses contain some type of psi element in order to get specific packaging of viral genomic RNA within the budding particles, and in the case of HIV-1, the psi element is 120 bases, and contains 4 stem-loop structures. Although the psi element can be quite variable, the SL3 loop is highly conserved within HIV-1 strains. Figure 5 shows the NC domain of HIV-1 NL4-3 in complex with the SL3 loop of the viral psi element.